1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to monitor display control method and apparatus for a data input unit and more particularly to monitor display control method and apparatus for a data input unit which is improved in order to make operator's work easier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The method to input data into an unit by means of manual input device, such as a keyboard is in wide use, and the display of the data on the screen of a monitor display unit is generally used in order to confirm the manually input data. Data input units having such monitor display units are widely adopted in electronic table calculators, in data entry devices such as key to disk (or key to cassette) devices, and in data terminal equipment which is connected to computers. Monitor display units in a data input unit are very useful in the case of manual input of many types of data at one time.
For example, subscription service and banking service adopt the system wherein the data which correspond to respective predetermined items are manually input.
In these cases, monitor display units e.g., cathode ray tubes, are used to display each of plural items and the data relating to each such item in prearranged, plural rows of the monitor display respectively corresponding to those items. Operators, after checking the displayed items, input the data which correspond to respective items by the use of manual input devices such as digit or data keys, and then the manually input is displayed data in the row position of the display for the corresponding items so that the operators can check that manual input data are correctly input and correctly correspond to respective items.
As an example, in banking service, customer's transaction data of various kinds are represented, e.g., as the first item "account number", the second item "balance", the third item "date", the fourth item "amount", and the fifth item "bank number" on respective positions of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth rows of the display screen of a monitor display unit. An operator successively inputs the transaction data corresponding to respective items of customers by pressing the alphabetic keys and digit, or numeric keys. A data input unit having such conventional monitor display unit is characterized by the following operator's work: checking of the aforesaid display items, pressing of the item select keys corresponding to respective items, and manual inputting of the data by a device such as numeric keys in order to display the manually input data concerned on the positions of the same rows where the respectively corresponding items are displayed. As a result, this data input unit provides operator's visual check of the validity of the data.
However, this well-known monitor display control method for a data input unit has a disadvantage, that is, the display of many items at one time makes the following check difficult because these data are directly represented on the position of the row where the corresponding items are displayed: check of the positions where input data are represented, and check of the items which correspond to the input data. This problem is especially difficult in the case of manual data input of items at operator's option instead of the case of manual data input in the order of the position of displayed items on the screen.